Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Thought I would put up a few more Macro shots, as I have taken a large number over the last two weeks. This selection are all new species for me and I got a real buzz (sorry about the pun) when I discovered them. I will try to ring the changes once in a while , but at the moment my Macro lens is giving me so much enjoyment its never off the Camera.So thanks all for bearing with me and this obsession

NOON FLY = MESEMBRINA MERIDIANA

HOVER FLY = VOLUCELLA BOMBYLANS.

MOSQUITO = DOLICHOPUS POPULARIS.

Finally I have been trying for some time to get a decent flight shot of a hoverfly, this one below was taken at Tehidy Woods and is one of six decent flight images I got the other forty seven ended up in the trash can. As you can see the landing gear is still up.

Tuesday, 29 June 2010

This is another from the Monochrome archive, it shows a couple of old fishing boats left to rot on one side of the Hayle Estuary.The image was taken around Twenty Five years ago, and these wrecks are still there.I find somthing very sombre about seeing what must have been beautiful boats, so full of energy and life on the waves left like this.

Saturday, 26 June 2010

"Confession Time" (And here is where all you ladies can Hiss and Boo at me ).During our married life I have only bought my wife a bouquet of flowers about six times, and she does enjoy flowers in the house. I always buy gifts for all the special occasions Birthdays etc, and they are usually something she can keep over the years, where as flowers end up in the trash can at the end of the week. So what I have done over the years is to also buy a rose for the Garden which is something that can be enjoyed year after year. We used to have 33 different varieties but have lost a few over the years, at present we have 21 different types, the latest which is called Ruby Anniversary as last Sept we celebrated 40 years of Marriage.

So below are a selection of the blooms from our garden which I have taken over the past couple of weeks and there are still a few which have not bloomed yet.

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Walking around Tehidy woods you can see in places where trees have been felled to make clearings, and in these some tree stumps have been left standing. Someone has taken the time to carve these into faces which I find amusing. How many there are I do not know, But you find them in all sorts of places when walking through the woods, I have put these four images up to give an idea of the workmanship.

Saturday, 19 June 2010

With Summer truly on its way everything is really getting on the move, I have taken so many images this last week its going to take me a while to go through and process them all. So to kick things off here are three species that are new ones for me.

TRUE FLY Conops Quadrifasciatus.

This Wasp like fly above is an uncommon species and not a friend to the Red Tailed Bumble Bee, in whom it lays its eggs and the grubs grow up inside the Bee. It flies from June to September.

ROBBER FLY. FAMILY ASILIDAE

Above is the Robber or Dung Fly which has a sturdy proboscis which it uses to pierce other insects

and then sucks them dry. There are twenty seven different species of this fly on the British List

TWO SPOT LADYBIRD. Adulia 2-punctata.

Ok so lets finish this horror story with every gardeners friend, one of the species of Ladybird found here in the UK. These little Beetles eat most of the Aphids that feed on plants and flowers in the garden.

Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Hi everyone sorry I have not been very active over the last week a couple of things have curtailed my activity, one of which is that I had a computer problem that made it lock up on start up and took me a while to sort out. Secondly I have had a stomach virus for a couple of days but glad to say I am ok again now. So I will be catching up on your blogs over the coming days. Right on to this latest post and as you know I like to try different things in my Photography, so I was in the garden yesterday with the camera looking for insects and on the garden wall I spotted Red Spider Mites.now to the naked eye these are pin head size, which at a guess is less than a 1/4mm, and I wondered if I could get a photo of one. So having made an addition to the setup I took a few shots and ended up with the image below, this image has been enlarged 100/% to try and give better detail, and the shot was handheld.Normally I do not include EXIF of the setup but for this image I used the following.

Thursday, 10 June 2010

The past two mornings I have taken a walk through Tehidy Woods and have spent the time looking through the Macro lens, needless to say I have taken a lot of insect shots, but I also got up close to some of the woodland flora & fauna. So this post is going to portray some of these images. I have to say I am no expert when it comes to identifying some of the shots, but I have stuck my neck out and taken the nearest thing they resemble in one of my books. So if I have some wrong I do apologize and hope someone will correct me.

As we all know life is one big learning curve, so I hope you all enjoy looking at these as much as I did taking them.

Tuesday, 8 June 2010

Bodmin Moor (Cornish: Goen Bren) is a granite moorland in northeastern Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 208 square kilometres (80 sq mi) in size, and originally dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history.

Bodmin Moor is one of five granite batholiths in Cornwall.The name 'Bodmin Moor' is relatively recent, being an Ordnance Survey invention of 1813. It was formerly known as Fowey Moor after the River Fowey which rises within it.Dramatic granite tors rise from the rolling moorland: the best known are Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall at 417 m (1,368 ft), and Rough Tor at 400 m (1,300 ft). To the south-east Kilmar Tor and Caradon Hill are the most prominent hills. Considerable areas of the moor are poorly drained and form marshes (in hot summers these can dry out). The rest of the moor is mostly rough pasture or overgrown with heather and other low vegetation.The Moor contains about 500 holdings with around 10,000 beef cows, 55,000 breeding ewes and 1,000 horses and ponies. Most of the moor is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and has been officially designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, as part of Cornwall Rivers and inland watersBodmin Moor is the source of several of Cornwall's rivers: they are mentioned here anti-clockwise from the south.The River Fowey rises at a height of 290 m (950 ft) and flows through Lostwithiel and into the Fowey estuary.The River Tiddy rises near Pensilva and flows southeast to its confluence with the River Lynher flows generally south-east until it joins the Hamoaze near Plymouth). The River Inny rises near Davidstow and flows southeast to its confluence with the River Tamar.The River Camel rises on Hendraburnick Down and flows for approximately 40 km (25 mi) before joining the sea at Padstow. The River Camel and its tributary the De Lank River are an important habitat for the otter and both have been proposed as Special Areas of Conservation. The De Lank River rises near Roughtor and flows along an irregular course before joining the Camel south of Wenford.The River Warleggan rises near Temple and flows south to join the Fowey.On the southern slopes of the moor lies Dozmary Pool. It is Cornwall's only natural inland lake and is glacial in origin. In the 20th century three reservoirs have been constructed on the moor; these are Colliford Lake, Siblyback Lake and Crowdy reservoirs which supply water for a large part of the county's population. Various species of waterfowl are resident around these waters.

10,000 years ago, in the Mesolithic period, hunter-gatherers wandered the moor when it was wooded and had a temperate climate. There are several documented cases of flint scatters being discovered by archaeologists, indicating that these hunter gatherers practised flint knapping in the region.

During the Neolithic era, from about 4,500 to 2,300 BC, people began clearing trees and farming the land. It was also in this era that the production of various megalithic monuments began, predominantly long cairns (three of which have currently been identified, at Louden, Catshole and Bearah) and stone circles (sixteen of which have been identified). It was also likely that the naturally forming tors were also viewed in a similar manner to the manmade ceremonial sites.In the following Bronze Age, the creation of monuments increased dramatically, with the production of over 300 further cairns, and more stone circles and stone rows. More than 200 Bronze Age settlements with enclosures and field patterns have been recorded. and many prehistoric stone barrows and circles lie scattered across the moor. King Arthur's Hall thought to be a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age ceremonial site can be found to the east of St Breward on the moor.Where practicable areas of the moor were used for pasture by herdsmen from the parishes surrounding the moor. Granite boulders were also taken from the moor and used for stone posts and to a certain extent for building (such material is known as moorstone). Granite quarrying only became reasonably productive when gunpowder became available.The moor gave its name (Foweymore) to one of the medieval districts called stannaries which administered tin mining: the boundaries of these were never defined precisely. Until the establishment of a turnpike road through the moor (the present A30) in the 1770s the size of the moorland area made travel within Cornwall very difficult.Roughtor was the site of a medieval chapel of St Michael and is now designated as a memorial to the 43rd Wessex Division of the British Army. In 1844 on Bodmin Moor the body of 18 year old Charlotte Dymond was discovered. Local labourer Matthew Weeks was accused of the murder and at noon on 12 August 1844 he was led from Bodmin Gaol and hanged. The murder site now has a monument erected from public money and the grave is at Davidstow churchyard.Historical Text taken from Wikipedia.

Sunday, 6 June 2010

Well its been a couple of busy weeks and I have not had much chance for Photography or Blogging even though the weather has been brilliant.First week I was busy wood treating my Garden Shed and fence in the back garden also keeping the garden and containers tidy. Last week was the schools half term break and we had the two youngest Grandchildren for a few days as Both their parents were working, and that kept us on our toes. Still did manage to get the Moth Trap out a couple of times, but the results were pretty poor with only four Moths on the first night and seven on the second, and these were repeat species except one I have made a couple of walks around the local patch , but now the trees are in full leaf its very difficult to get images. Yesterday morning I did get down to Pendeen for a bit of Seawatching resulting in 3 Basking Sharks, 1,000 Manx Shearwaters, 50+ Razorbills and 1 Puffin which was a year tick. So now that the breeding season is in full swing things tend to go a bit quiet for a month or so, guess I will have to concentrate on something else.

Tuesday, 1 June 2010

Just a short post to say I now have a few sets of images loaded onto Flickr if anyone is interested, the link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanner_janner/ hope this link works.I will be adding more sets and images as I get the time. These images can be viewed full size in the slide show, so hope you enjoy.

COPYRIGHT

All Photographs are the copyright of Monty Curtis and are not for download or use without permission. If anyone would like a copy of any picture, please E:Mail me at lannerjanner@gmail.comI will forward one to you with pleasure.

Real Time visitors

CORNISH BIRDS OF PREY CENTRE

On retirement from work in 2009 I was presented with two vouchers to visit The Birds of Prey Centre at St Columb Major.
One was for an hours bird handling, and the other for an hours Bird Photography. I arranged to do this in September 2010, and arrived on Thurs 30th.
I was greeted by the proprietors Mick and the Falconer Andy, my first impressions were how clean the reception and Cafeteria area were. After a short introduction, Andy took me through an hours Bird Handling.
This has to be one of the best hours I have spent in a long time, imagine having, Harris Hawk, Gyr Falcon, American Kestrel, Perigrene x Saker Falcon, sitting on your hand, also Scops owl, Tawny Owl, Barn Owl. and Bengal Eagle Owl, also Andy's imparted knowledge shows how much he cares for his charges.
Next it was an hours Bird Photography split into two half hour sessions with a public flying display in between.
(No they did not throw people into the air).
Again nothing was to much trouble as Andy brought out all the birds that could be handled for me to Photograph at lesuire.
So overall thoughts about my visit.
A very clean complex both in the public and animal areas.
Very friendly and helpfull Staff.
Offers super value for money for both individuals and familys.
So if you are on Holiday or local to the area go along and pay them a visit, you will be pleasantly suprised.
As Arnie once said "I will be Back "Below are the shortcuts to the posts of my visit

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT ME

Hi and welcome to my Blog, I hope that you enjoy your visit and will return again soon My name is Monty and I live in the village of Lanner in the County of Cornwall SW UK.I have been married for 41 yrs, we have two beautiful daughters who have given us three georgous grandchildren .Lanner is situated about 40km North East of Lands End. I have lived here all my life and really love the area.Cornwall is a very diverse area from the wide open moorland of Bodmin Moor in the North and the deep wooded valley's of the Southeast, moving Southwest the rolling farmland of mid, and West Cornwall give way to the coastal moorland in the West of the county.Add to this some of the most beautiful coastal scenery in the world, and quaint fishing villages in small coves, and you have a magical place steeped in history, myth and legend.Main Industries these days are Fishing/Tourism andAgriculture.MAIN INTRESTS Photography,Birdwatching ,Walking, and a interest in all things natural. So I hope to share some of my Photos and thoughts with youI am also a Radio Ham for the past 20+ years, call sign is G4ZKH or as a friend in St Johns Newfoundland calls me (Zoo Keepers Helper).

ANY COMMENTS WILL BE APPRECIATED, ALSO BY CHECKING THE REACTIONS BOXE'S IT WILL GIVE ME AN INDICATION OF WHAT PEOPLE THINK ABOUT THE BLOG AND IF I NEED TO TRY AND IMPROVE IT.